Guidelines? What Guidelines?

The guidelines studied by Copeland and colleagues aren't law. They were designed by health experts to simplify decisions about excluding kids from day care for health reasons.

Copeland's team gave surveys about the guidelines to 80 day care providers, 142 parents, and 36 pediatricians in Baltimore.

Most weren't very familiar with the guidelines, the surveys showed. Each of the three groups didn't know how the guidelines addressed four out of 10 children's common health conditions.

The guidelines come from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care.

Could You Pass the Test?

Try your hand at these questions, adapted from Copeland's survey. Read each scenario and decide if the child could attend day care, according to the guidelines.

Your child has a thick green or yellow discharge from the nose for 5 days but no fever.

Your child has a new rash, but he or she is behaving normally and doesn't have a fever.

Hepatitis A virus, until one week after onset of illness, jaundice, or as directed by the health department when preventive measures have been given to other children and staff members at the day care facility